Hidayat Hussain Khan

He is the youngest son of sitar legend the late Ustad Vilayat Khan, and the first thing that strikes you about Hidayat Hussain is his innate humility and warmth. Though he looks a lot like his father, his voice and mannerisms are an uncanny replica of big brother Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan.

In a candid interview with Kaveta, Hidayat shares memories of his legendary father, his own journey, and why classical music and his father’s legacy is in safe hands.

How has your journey been different from that of your father and brother?

I think children who are born into musical families have a pretty similar upbringing and mine was no different. We start music literally in our mother’s womb. In fact, my mother had to learn sitar just for her to blend into my father’s world, and to make sure that music was part of her baby’s genes.

There is a little beat up sitar in our house and I think every child, be it Abba, Shujaat Bhai, the other cousins, and I -all of us have been initiated into music on that baby sitar. Its become a family heirloom. Each child was done with it by the time they turned 2 or 3 years old and then moved on to a bigger sitar. So our initiation into music happened, not so much in awareness, but more as a way of life.

My life was different because all the experiences my father had growing up and the struggles he and then Shujaat Bhai had to go through were alien to me. My father was the sole earning member of his family at a very early age and he became an ATM machine for everyone. And that colored his view of people and things. I think all successful people want their children and students to emulate them and imitate those things that made the legend successful. I remember we would all sit around him when he was teaching. We were scared of him and he was a hard task master, but I never remember him yelling at us.

He always said that if you don’t understand something it’s the teacher’s fault not yours. I think he had really mellowed down by the time I was born. My father had begun to feel his age and that he may not have enough time to pass on all the knowledge that he had. So I had to go through these intense, compressed sessions with him on a very regular basis and it was very tough.

If you look at all his students – all of us have such a distinct style of playing. We absorbed what we were capable of absorbing. He was equally generous with everyone and gave us all the same material. We absorbed what we could and played what we absorbed. Until I became a teenager I toed the line not knowing any better and then started rebelling… and of course I didn’t want to do anything my parents wanted me to do. But as I grew older I really could not imagine doing anything else. I did have other hobbies and Abba always encouraged that. He said if you don’t have a multi dimensional personality, it doesn’t show up in your music, it becomes stale and you become a boring musician. But the main focus must always remain classical music.

He was a very interesting man. He was always up to something – always learning, always wanting to discover. He was very dynamic and had a dual personality. If you came to him and said “I’m in need please help me,” he would give you the shirt off his back. I’ve seen Abba give away tons of money with no questions asked when someone in need came to him on a personal level. If someone came and said “I’m broke, please play a free concert for me,” he would have never done it. On a human level he was always courteous, but as a musician his ego came out- he expected to be respected and treated a certain way and if that wasn’t done all hell would break loose.

Abba taught me several lessons in humility. Once we were playing in the Dover Lane Music conference in Calcutta. The organizers had oversold the tickets to Abba’s concert so instead of 5000, double the people showed up and were fighting over seats. I was irritated and was about to say something when Abba totally cut me off and said to the audience with utter humility and sweetness: “I’m grateful to all of you for coming and showing me so much love. I’m the son of Bengal and so many of you have seen me grow up. I’ve now become an old man so please either find a place to sit or come on stage and sit near me.” There was pin drop silence for the next 2 hours when he played.

He said to me later: “If I had yelled at them, these people who have came because they loved me, would have been so hurt. We should never forget it is because of their love that I’m here.” That totally grounded me.

One time Abba heard a Bengali song and was so taken with it he asked the singer be tracked down and brought to him. It was some obscure guy but we finally managed to track him down and told him to come as Ustad Vilayat Khan wanted to meet him. The guy was so scared. Abba offered him tea and then said with great humility that he wanted the singer to teach him the song. The man freaked out and said “I need to use the rest room, and I will be back”. Instead he fled from the house.

We went back again but he wouldn’t come so Abba went to his house and literally had him eating out of his hands in a few minutes and then it was a sight to see. The great Vilayat Khan sitting with an obscure artist learning the song as a student with such humility as if he knew nothing, and in a way that made the man so comfortable.

When it came to his music however, he was very arrogant. He believed he was the best and didn’t care what anyone else thought or said. Over the years he became very insecure and distrustful of people who were related to the music business. He did have a dual personality but that comes from all the struggles one has faced. People’s life experiences color their perception of others. But if he liked you as a person and felt you liked and respected him, he was an amazing human being to be around. He lived life on his own terms.

How was his relationship with Shujaat? I believe he read the very controversial interview I did with Shujaat before he passed away.

I think because Shujaat bhai was so much older than me he actually became a bridge between Abba and me. There was also never any competition because I was so much younger than him and the other cousins. It becomes tough in the case of siblings for the one who is less successful if they are close in age. I grew up in a secure home. I always had my mother to turn to if I was upset about something. Shujaat bhai didn’t. I think in his later years when I was old enough to understand, Abba used to feel very bad about the fact that he couldn’t provide a stable home for Shujaat bhai. He was very proud of Lajo Lajo and its success, although he wanted to make sure Shujaat bhai didn’t become just a Lajo Lajo artist and remained true to classical music. Abba was never opposed to experimentation. Had he been, he would not have created the gayaki ang. He would not have changed the sitar the way he did (Ustad Vilayat Khan added the gandharva and Pancham strings to the sitar to create a richer sound when the chikari strings were struck). He did not approve of fusion music but he liked Lajo Lajo becaue it was based on folk.

I think Shujaat Bhai has been an outstanding son. He is an equally good father. These days I think he has replaced Abba and sometimes it makes me laugh how much he acts like Abba. If I’m going somewhere Shujaat bhai will say “Kahan ja rahe ho? Kab ghar wapas ayoge? Khana khaya?” (“When are you leaving? When will you return? Did you eat?”) And I’m 35 years old!

Shujaat is perhaps the most outstanding musician we have today. He is brilliant and at the end of the day what would have mattered to my father most was that his legacy be carried on, and no one could have done it better than Shujaat. And by that I don’t just mean his music, but the dignity with which he conducts himself, the way he presents himself. He is truly one of the most genuine and lovely human beings you’ll meet. Look at where he is today. He is a superstar and he deserves to be. I feel such pride when I look at him and Abba did as well.

I struggled in my own way but I must relate a couple of incidents about how Abba made sure I wasn’t spoilt. I had not travelled by anything other than first class till I was about nineteen /twenty, because until then I was traveling with Abba. Then I went on a concert tour and had to travel economy class. I was so embarrassed, I was hiding my face and hoping no one would recognize me, and came home and threw tantrums: “ I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I hope no one recognized me at the airport ,” and so on . When Abba heard this he sent me packing to go play at this Indian restaurant in Baltimore for almost 8 months. Every day I would sit there and play and would have people come up to me and say “Arrey Bhai, bajana band karo. Khana khaney do.” (Brother, stop playing. Please let us eat our food.)

One time Abba spoke about Alam (Khan, son of sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan) and he instantly became God in the media. So I mustered up all my courage and said to him, “Abba could you make a couple of phone calls so I can also get a few concerts?” He said “Really? Okay… but just go and get your sitar.” I happily ran and got my instrument and he started teaching me for 2-3 hours. That was the end of that day. Again after 2-3 days I mustered up the courage to ask him and he did the same thing. This went on for a few days until finally when I asked again he said: “Beta,(son) the only promotion I will give you is the taleem(education). Look at Shujaat. He is standing on his own feet- is he not? And that is the way it will be for you because I want you to stand on your own two feet and not on the shoulders of your father.”

At that time I was very upset and would complain to my mother: “What is this 1930s thinking? Everyone is helping their children. Why isn’t he doing that for me?” But today I’m so grateful to him because whatever little I’ve achieved in my life has been on my own merit.

When Abba died all the doors that were open for him shut firmly in my face. The people who supported him and would bend over backwards for him, did not think I was worth their time. It was others who came from nowhere, who offered support. It is the friendships that I made over the years, the fans that have come through for me, who have made me who I am today.

Abba has been gone for several years and as I finally come to grips with my career I am so grateful he forced me to do it by myself.

So what has been the blessing and the burden of being Ustad Vilayat Khan’s son?

I think the biggest blessing has not been the fact that I was one of the fortunate few who had the tremendous good fortune to learn directly from a man like him, but what I learnt from him indirectly, by just being in the presence of someone as multi-dimensional as Abba. The things that attracted him, the interests he pursued, the way he tuned his sitar, his creativity – what he was thinking in terms of his music, what he was listening to and so many other life’s lessons.

The burden has been of course the hill I have had to climb and learning to appreciate myself in my own eyes because I’m never satisfied. Having lived with Abba all these years did not allow me to mature or venture out on my own. Then suddenly to lose him in a matter of less than a month – from finding out he had cancer to losing him – was heart breaking. On top of that I had a serious car accident in which I had badly injured my right hand and leg and for months I could not play. It was part of my physical therapy and I would sit near a mirror like a small child and watch my hands as I struggled for hours and would not go even from point zero to 1 after 3 hours of trying to play. The only reason I could pay my bills was because my students continued to come and learn.

Then one day a miracle happened. I had almost given up on music, was very depressed and decided I was going to quit. It was a friend who forced me to try and continue for a month more. I suddenly had this urge to go and practice on Abba’s sitar. Since his death it had been very difficult to even look at it. But that day I went and sat down. Many people may think I’m nuts but the moment I touched his sitar it was as if my fingers came alive. It was as If he was guiding my hands. Suddenly I could play and not just that- I was ready to play a concert within a couple of months.

Now I have finally picked up the pieces and am in a good place. I practice on his sitar. I don’t take it with me because Im afraid it may get damaged. But I get inspiration from playing on it. The other day I did a recording of raga Shyam Kalyan for Navras records and afterwards we were listening to the tonality of the music and I started getting goosebumps. I had recorded the raga on Abba’s sitar and again it may sound weird but the tonal quality and the touch was his, and I said “Oh my God is this really me?” It sounds like Abba playing through my hands.

A couple of weeks ago I did a concert in his memory in New York. It was an intimate setting and I wanted to do some of his old bandishes, things I had not played for ages and I was practicing trying to play it like he had told me. I was reaching a certain point and didn’t know what to do next and I took a wrong turn and suddenly I heard a sound as if he was admonishing me. I tried again, again made the same mistake and again heard the same sound. It freaked me out and I left the room. It may just be my subconscious mind but I had to take a break and come back again. I got it finally but I really feel my father’s presence guiding me.

Of course the struggle has also been to find respect as a musician in my own eyes. When you’ve grown up in the presence of a genius, and heard such superlative stuff 24/7, it raises the bar very high for you. When I listen to the recordings of my own concerts I see a very erratic graph -very high peaks and very low lows. I would try to reproduce things that are very complicated and would often fall flat on my face, because I was trying to do things that were beyond my ability. So I would never be happy with myself. I would judge myself from Ustad Vilayat Khan’s eyes and I always fell short.

It took me a very very long time to realize that I’m who I am and I need to see my performances and my journey through my own eyes, from my own level. I’m not my father and people who make comparisons must realize that. Luckily a day comes when you cultivate your own followers who like you for who you are. The comparisons will continue so you take the good with the not so good in your stride.

How has music and audiences changed for you?

Well, today’s classical musician and music have to be handled differently. The musician today has to do so many things – handle the media, and learn to keep the commercial and classical projects clearly apart. I just released a couple of albums. Though I’ve always been media shy, I had to go all over the place promoting them, playing before large crowds and catering to the music houses and people.

It’s equally important to realize that when we do classical concerts we have to honor that tradition in the purest way possible and separate ourselves totally from what we were doing commercially. Classical music has a very select audience. Barring a few classical musicians who command huge audiences world wide most of us will be doing baithak style concerts in intimate sittings.

What do you think of the rest of your family?

Well Imrat Khan sahib is a great musician as are his sons. Shahid Bhai is also outstanding. His hangers-on have created a lot of misunderstandings and given the impression that he does not honor Abba or acknowledge the fact that Abba has taught him extensively and been the major influence in his life. Abba never differentiated between Shujaat bhai and Shahid bhai or his other students. He taught everyone with equal generosity. Recently I was at a concert in Nasik where Shahid bhai is opening a music school and he said “Those who know me know who I keep in my heart all the time”, referring to Abba. I was very touched.

That is why I don’t have any chamchas. It keeps things very real for me. I’ve seen how, so many musicians lose touch with reality when they allow other people to take over their life and flatter their egos. “Yes men” warp your sense of reality and at the end you have no friends left. Today none of my friends come from the music industry.

So where are you today? What does being a musician mean to you?

I think I want to be the kind of musician that satisfies my own imagination. To be sitting with my sitar and to do what I love the most. I enjoy classical music and I equally enjoy doing other projects. But commercial projects are a fun phase. It’s like you can’t eat Bollywood biryani every day, you have to come back to your staple diet – classical music. I love doing albums in studios. I have a fantastic group of people and sitting in the studio, giving everyone a free rein, and collaborating is extremely satisfying. And to also know when to do what. If you hear my latest album Sawariya, you will see the sitar is being played in a way that is required. It blends in the project and I’m not playing crazy taans just because I can.

I also believe that it’s a great time for classical musicians. There are so many more of them. If you see Abba’s time there were only two great musicians – Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan. The generation younger to them too has a handful and in Shujaat Bhai’s generation too there are a handful. But in my generation there are so many more musicians earning a living, doing concerts and other projects. The audiences have also increased worldwide and we have all kinds of people listening to classical music because it’s a global audience thanks to the internet and other technology.

They can listen to you for 5 hours if you keep them entertained but every raga does not need to be stretched for hours. Even Abba knew that though Amir Khan sahib and he added aesthetics to their rendition and could play a single raga for hours. However if you see even Abba’s recordings, he could play a Bhairavi alaap for 2 hours and you will not move from your seats and then he would do a shorter one on Malkauns because you cannot go on and on with a raga that has no movement.

Also every artist must know his own capability. Are you talented enough to pull off an alaap for an hour and keep the audience captivated? If not, why should you? The audience is like a clean sheet of paper. You can write whatever you want on it but be discerning.

I was playing a concert recently and played rag Jhinjhoti for close to 2 hours because the audience was amazing, the energy that day was something else but that won’t happen every day.

So what are you most proud of?

I think the fact that I have finally managed to overcome the loss of my father and recovered from my accident. I’ve returned to music with renewed passion. I really enjoy practicing today. There are days I’m lost in music and hours pass and I lose track of time. It doesn’t happen every day but I so look forward to it when it happens. I consider myself extremely fortunate because of all the blessings life has showered on me

Tell me about your upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall?

It’s a sufi music concert and it will be very exciting. Sufi Kalaam has been associated with all that is mystical and secular, with Hazrat Amir Khusro, Bulle Shah and Qawalli but it is so much more than that. We are also doing Kabir’s songs. We’ve got Steve Gorn also with us and he is a captivating musician. So you will have a wonderful time.